RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS: A new book rewrites Sir John A. Macdonald’s role in Canada’s history

Most Canadians consider Sir John A. Macdonald, the nation’s first prime minister, as “the Father of Confederation.” But this crusty politician, an ancestor of mine on my mother’s side, might well be called “father of residential schools.”

Want to learn how his policies launched aboriginal children into decades of forced assimilation and abuse? Read my opinion piece “Macdonald’s legacy not entirely golden,” published Feb. 20, 2015 in the Edmonton Journal. It addresses the new book Residential Schools: With the Words and Images of Survivors, by  Larry Loyie and Constance Brissenden, which I edited.

Here is how the piece reads in the Edmonton Journal: Residential Schools op ed piece Edmonton Journal.

This article also appears on my blog, with readers’ comments, under the title “Bicentennial Redux: Sir John A. Macdonald Father of Residential Schools.”

Click here to read.